


A Rumor A Day

by heliophile7



Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:20:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27583289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heliophile7/pseuds/heliophile7
Summary: For as long as Beth Chapel could remember she had the power to control the minds of those around her by saying the simple phrase, "I heard a rumor". For years she has been promising herself that she'd never use that power for her own advantage... But sometimes the moment just calls for it.
Relationships: Beth Chapel & Rick Tyler, Beth Chapel/Rick Tyler, Yolanda Montez & Courtney Whitmore, hournite - Relationship
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	1. Beth's parents

Beth has been waiting for this day for some time, her parents both finally had a day off work for the first time in months. A few weeks ago they promised her that on their day off they’d spend it doing numerous fun activities with her. Including going to the beach, getting ice cream at Richie’s diner, and maybe stop by the skating rink. 

Beth was so excited when she woke up. Her alarm rang loudly, but she had been awake well before it sounded. 

She turns off her alarm and pulls away her bright pink covers to jump out of bed. Summer break started a week ago and next year she will be officially going into seventh grade. Beth has a deep fear that the older she got, the less her parents would want to spend time with her. She wants to have as many fun memories with them before that could happen. 

After brushing her teeth and taking a shower, Beth puts on her outfit for the day and heads downstairs. Upon arriving downstairs, she glances into the kitchen where she expects breakfast to be ready. Instead all she sees is her mother talking on the phone and her dad typing on his laptop on the kitchen counter. Not a breakfast food in sight, she hopes that maybe they’re planning to go out for breakfast instead.

“Hi dad!” Beth says upon arriving in the kitchen and sitting next to her father, on the chairs at the countertop. 

“Hi mom!” she waves as her mom gives a small wave back while she continues her phone conversation.

“Beth, morning sweetheart,” James replies. “I didn’t expect you to be up so early.” He doesn’t even move his eyes from the laptop screen.

Beth feels the excitement slowly leaving her body as she gazes back and forth between her mom, who is still on a phone call (she’s mentioning a lot of medical terms so it must be work) and her dad as he sips coffee from his mug, typing away on his laptop.

“So, where are we off to first, Chapel gang!? I was thinking that maybe we can stop for breakfast at Richie’s? His waffles are always the best!”

After hearing Beth’s words both parents dumbfoundedly look at her and then back at each other.

“I’m gonna have to call you back, i’ll be there soon,” Bridget says on the phone before hanging up.

“Beth, sweetheart,” James says softly as he places his hand on Beth's shoulder, “We must've forgotten to tell you, but we’re going to have to rain check our little family fun time plans.” 

As those words leave his mouth, Beth sinks into her seat. They’ve been working non-stop this entire year, and she asked for one day to spend with them, not two, one! And they couldn't even grant her that? “What do you mean? I thought you guys both had a day off today?” 

“Well we were supposed to have a day off today, but the hospital has gotten very busy lately, and your father,” Bridget says gesturing to James, “Got called in to a surprise emergency meeting.” 

“Yes sweetheart, listen, if we could have it any other way we would. But I called Sarah and she’ll be here soon,” James explains.

Sarah is the baby sitter Beth’s parents hire for her, she was this seventeen year old girl they knew from the neighbourhood. Sarah is five years older than Beth and into teenage things, she never wants to do anything Beth wants to do like play barbies and have tea parties. She would just show up really early and order her and Beth takeout while she talked to her friends on the phone about boys and parties. One time Beth could have sworn she saw her smoking a cigarette on the living room couch. Beth hated having to spend the day with her. 

Beth huffs, and her eyes begin to water. 

“Well you guys have been working everyday non stop for months! You leave early in the morning and you don’t come back until late at night! I’m tired of spending all my days with a sitter! You are being selfish!” Beth shouts, surprising herself. She never raised her voice at her parents before. 

James and Bridget go silent as they stare at Beth in shock. 

“Young lady, i do not expect you to understand what it’s like being an adult with a job, but we did not raise you to talk back to us, no matter how upset you are! Am I understood?”

A lump began developing in Beth’s throat as her mom spoke to her.

“Yes ma’am,” Beth replies meekly.

A bing comes from her dad’s phone. He looks at his cell and gets up from his seat by the kitchen countertop. “I have to go, Jordan’s back today for a surprise visit, whenever he shows his face in town it has to be for something important.”

Before leaving, he turns towards Beth to hold her, “Sweetheart, we’ll reschedule, I promise.” 

Beth looks down at the kitchen counter, tears flowing down her face. She doesn't respond, she can’t even look up. 

“Actually if you’re leaving right now, I should go too. I could use a ride to the hospital.” 

“Okay, let’s go.” James as he hugs Beth tighter and kisses her on the forehead.

Bridget walks over to James and Beth and joins their hug. “Sweetie,” Bridget says as they let go, and she holds Beth's face, making her look up. “I love you so much, and your dad and I are both so sorry for going back on our promise… But we’ll make it up to you, okay?”

Beth looks at her mother with tears still in her eyes, then back at her father. She knows what she could do to make all the pain go away, to make them stay. She knew of her ability ever since she was six years old and mind controlled a kid on the playground to share his toys with her. 

But could she do something so cruel to her parents? Take away their free will? She has an advanced view on morals for a twelve year old girl. 

She ponders as her parents watch her with sorry looks, hoping she’ll forgive them. Before Beth can even consider all aspects of what she’s doing, the words come out of her mouth. 

“I heard a rumor…” 

The moment she says that her parents' eyes turn white, they go idle like mindless zombies, waiting for her command. 

“...That you stayed,” Beth said, finishing her sentence. 

Her parents' eyes turn back to normal, for a second they look confused, like lost puppies. 

“You know, Beth…We promised you a family fun day and we’re sticking to it!” Her father says with a wide grin on his face.

“Yeah, I don’t what I was thinking sweetie, work can wait… You’re way more important, I'll call Dr. King and tell him he’ll have to figure it out without me today,” Bridget adds on, pulling out her phone to dial his number in.

“And while you’re doing that, I'll text Sarah and tell her not to come. I’m sure Jordan won’t mind if I missed one day, right?” James says as he texts Sarah on his phone. 

After fixing all of the things on their schedule, Beth’s parents hold to their promise. They have breakfast at Richie’s, and Beth orders the waffles with extra whipped cream. They go to the beach, Beth makes sandcastles with her mother as her father pretends to be a giant and knocks them down, which makes Beth laugh so hard. 

They also stop by the park to collect some ants for their new ant farm. They end the day with going to the skating rink, they skate for hours and have shakes and pizza. 

Beth knows that she will never forget that day, even though she sadly has to live with what she did to even get that day to happen.

Never again, Beth promised herself. Never again was she going to use her powers.

She doesn’t like having that much power over peoples minds.


	2. Beth & Rick.

Rick Harris could never be trusted on a partner project, Beth knew that well before their teacher made them partners in biology class. Mrs. Sanders must really hate Beth if she paired someone as genius and diligent as her, with a slacker like Rick. 

Since it’s her freshman year in high school, Beth knows she needs to work twice as hard as she did in middle school. Even though passing middle school with excellent grades mattered, passing high school with excellent grades is what colleges look at.

As she walks through the halls of Blue Valley High, there’s so many students passing her by, high school halls seem to be way more crowded than the ones in middle school. Beth spots Rick grabbing some books out of his locker and placing them into his backpack. She shyly passes all the other students in the hallway to get to Rick. 

“Hi Rick!” she greets, waving at him.

Rick sighs as he slams his locker door shut to turn and see Beth, her eyes zestful as she smiles brightly at him.

“What do you want, Chapel?” His voice cuts with an undertone as he places the last book in his backpack, zips it up and places it around his shoulder. 

“Well, I was wondering if you would want to come over after school today, we can work on our project for Mrs.Sanders's class!” 

Leaning against his locker, Rick rolls his eyes. “What project?” 

How could he forget? 

This project is worth a large portion of their biology grade, but unfortunately, this is typical behavior of him, she shouldn't be so surprised to find out Rick forgot. “The human cell and plant cell diagram?” Beth questions, hoping to refresh his memory.

Rick shrugs his shoulders, still not knowing what she’s referring to.

“Rick!” Beth yelps, exasperated. “We have to turn it in next week! I’ve been working on my plant cell for two days! You were supposed to be working on the human cell, remember??” 

“Okay okay, I don’t know what the big deal is, you just said we have until next week. I still have time.”

“That’s not the point, Rick! You have to learn how to be more productive, we’re not in middle school anymore, how well we do in high school counts!” 

“Why? Let me guess, because you think that we should spend our entire time in high school worrying about what colleges will think of us.”

“Well yeah! That's exactly what i think.”

“I don’t even know if I'm going to college Beth. We’re not all you, planning every aspect of our future like life is supposed to be scheduled.” 

“My life is not scheduled!” Beth rebutes with a glare and indignant scoff. “I just know where I'm going in life, unlike some people.”

“Well while you’re busy planning for college, I’m going to be doing stuff that actually helps me now!” Rick yells, slamming his locker. “You can finish the project on your own,” he continues in a hushed, furious tone. “I have places to be.”

He walks away from his locker and down the hall but Beth follows behind him.

“Rick! You can’t just walk away from me, this is a partner project! We both need to play our parts!” she says as she chases him down.

“Whatever. I’m probably gonna fail anyway, not all of us are ‘academically gifted’ like you, Beth.” He picks up his pace. 

“That's so not fair! You—” Before Beth gets her sentence out, Rick groans, accidentally bumping into Henry King Jr. and knocking Henry down. 

Standing next to Rick, Beth sees the worried look in Rick’s eyes as Henry gets off the floor and dusts himself off. A lot of the students in the hallway turn toward Rick and Henry as they stand in the middle of the hall. 

Rick has Beth by his side, while Henry has three other boys behind him, all of them wearing varsity jackets like Henry. 

“Watch where you’re going, Harris,” Henry spits as he glares at Rick.

“Sorry, didn't see you,” Rick says before trying to walk away. Before he could, Henry pushes him back, causing him to lose balance and almost fall before catching himself.

“What the hell is your problem?!”

“I can’t have losers like you thinking they can disrespect me like that and just get away with it!” Henry responds. 

The three boys behind him all go “Oooo” underneath their breaths, encouraging Henry's actions.

Rick takes a deep breath. “I don’t have any beef with you Henry, I have better places to be.” 

Beth’s heartbeat intensifies as the students begin to record the boys and laugh at the situation. 

“Sounds to me like you’re a pussy,” Henry says before shoving Rick again. “Come on, hit me back big man, don’t tell me you’re scared.” 

Beth hears some students whisper things along the lines of “Oh he’s definitely scared” and “Rick probably knows Henry could kick his ass, he shouldn’t even try.” 

Beth grabs Rick's arm, leaning in to whisper, “Rick, don’t humour him, he just wants a fight.” 

Henry smirks. “Aww, I see how it is. You’re scared of getting your ass handed to you in front of your girlfriend,” he teases, causing some of the students to laugh and chuckle.

Rick yanks his arm from Beth's grip, “She’s not my girlfriend!” 

“Okay, then what are you afraid of, huh?” He shoves Rick again, this time even harder. “Hit me back, come on let’s give the audience a show, you guys want a show right?” Henry says to the other students, they all cheer and nod in agreement. 

Henry steps closer to Rick, looking into his rageful eyes. “What are you waiting for… Pussy.” 

Beth’s intuition kicks in, she can already tell Rick is fed up. She looks down at his fists, he begins to ball them up more the closer Henry got to him. Beth knows that guys like Henry would just get a slap on the wrist for fighting on school grounds. With a dad as respected in Blue Valley as Dr. King, Henry knows he’s practically untouchable. 

But Rick on the other hand… He doesn’t have it so easy, his dad is a drunk, everyone knows it, kids at school have parents that gossip about seeing Matt Harris wasted in local bars and hitting on waitresses. Rick doesn’t have the same status as Henry and with his grades, one fight could easily lead him to getting expelled. 

Before Henry could get too close to Rick, Beth knows what she has to do. She promised herself she’d never use her powers again after what she did to her parents. But this could ruin Rick’s life, she can’t sit back and watch that happen. 

Beth grabs Rick’s arm once again and leans in to whisper in his ear, “I heard a rumor…”

The moment those words leave her lips, Rick became just like her parents that day she last deceived them, paralyzed and waiting for Beth’s command.

“...That you calmed down.”

After hearing her words, Rick unclenches his fist and takes a deep breath. As Henry gets closer, Rick’s anger slowly goes away.

“So?” Henry says to Rick once they’re face to face.

Rick looks at Beth as she stares at the ground, ashamed of what she did. He looks back at Henry. “Like I said, I have better places to be,” Rick says finally, and walks away.

Beth follows behind him, she could see Henry’s defeat as they leave. 

Outside in the front yard of the Blue Valley High School, Beth and Rick walk down the staircase. 

“I’m proud of you,” Beth says softly.

“Don't be…” Rick says, “He just wasn’t worth my time.” They reach the bottom of the staircase. 

“Whatever you say, I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“What do you mean? I thought we were heading to your place?” 

Beth jolts her head back in surprise. She stammers, “—Oh, I thought you didn’t want to work on the project?” 

Rick grins, ever so slightly, “Yeah I didn’t, but then a wise woman told me that i need to learn to be more productive.” 

Beth’s heart pounds out of her chest. This is the first time she’s seen him ever come close to smiling. The way he spoke to her made her feel something she’s never experienced before, she didn’t even know what to call it, it just felt… comforting. 

“Well, whoever she may be, she knows what she’s talking about.” Beth jokes.

Rick chuckles as he looks into her eyes. He’s grinning again. “Yeah, yeah she does.”


End file.
